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     Our first taste of Pumpkin Soup was at a tea room outside of Gatlinburg, TN.  We left hooked on the soup and on tea rooms!  We usually enjoy this soup on Friday evening and have the added bonus of leftovers for the weekend. 

     Hope you enjoy!

Warm Pumpkin Soup

Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

1 cup mayonnaise (non-hydrogenated please )

Whole Wheat Butter Crescent Rolls

These rolls are a great way to break into eating whole wheat.  My niece, who would never eat anything whole wheat, loved these.  Children really enjoy making them, too. 

We usually have these for Thanksgiving dinner.  They are great with chicken salad as well.  I have also made mini versions for serving at a party.

Blessings,

Marcie

Chicken Broth!                 

     Many good soup recipes begin with chicken broth.  I have found the quality of the chicken broth makes a big difference in the taste of the soup.  While there are chicken broths you can purchase, (my favorite being the Imagine brand), homemade chicken broth is easy to make and quite inexpensive.  So here goes…

1  4-5 # natural or organic chicken (got to recommend the healthiest )

      Place all of the ingredients into a large stock pot.  Fill with water (about 4 quarts).  Cook on high until boiling.  Cover and reduce heat to maintain a medium boil.  Cook for about 2-21/2 hours or until chicken is tender.  My technical way to decide if it is done is to see if the legs will easily come off.

      For the delicious cooked chicken, I remove it from the bone and freeze in 2 cup quantities. Most recipes calling for cooked chicken usually call for 2 cups.

 Now you have the beginnings of several good meals, including Pumpkin Soup.

Blessings,

Marcie

 Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Delicious!  Picture from Jane’s blog  

   My friend, Jane, posted a wonderful recipe for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls a little while back.  WE LOVE THESE!  Here is a link.  Jane and her sweet girls are very crafty.  I think you will enjoy the visit.

http://seedstosew.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-i-had-bed-and-breakfast-id-serve.html

Pumpkin Pot Holders

Cute!!!  Picture from Kathy’s Website  

       Another of my talented friends, Kathy, has a tutorial on a pumpkin pot holder along with several other pumpkin related crafts.  Kathy’s website is devoted to helping parents to teach their young people life skills.  Talking about crafty and talented, well, just visit, you’ll get the idea.  Here is the link to the tutorials

 http://teachinggoodthings.com/blog/pumpkin-tutorials-make-your-own-pumpkin-spice/

Blessings,

Marcie

     Have you ever contemplated the goodness and wisdom of the Lord in the foods He gives us in season?  I guess these thoughts  came to me when home educating my first kindergartener.  (Another benefit to home educating).  

     In the summer, when we are outside working and loosing fluid, He gives us fruits such as watermelon that are mostly water.  In the fall, when our bodies are a little more stressed due to changes in weather, He gives us colorful vegetables like those in the squash family that are full of anti-oxidents to strengthen our immune systems.  His provisions for us are perfect! 

     This Pumpkin Loaf may not be perfect, but I hope your family enjoys it as much as ours does!

Harvest Pumpkin Loaves

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 2 loaf pans.

 Cream butter; gradually add sugar; mix in eggs, 1 at a time.  Set aside.

 Combine the next seven ingredients.

 Glaze: 

Blessings,

Marcie

     Wondering what to do with those pumpkins you have?  For the next several posts, I’ll be sharing several of our favorite pumpkin recipes and crafts.

     The recipes will be for Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, and Pumpkin Bread.   (No pie recipe, )

     First things first, though. 

Cooking Pumpkin

     1.  Wash the pumpkin.  Cut off the stem and cut the pumpkin in half.  With a spoon, scoop out the strings and seeds.  (You can save the seeds to roast if you like.)

     2.  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Pour one inch of water it a 9″x13″ pan.  Place pumpkin, cut side down, into the pan.  Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes or until tender.  Cool.  (This can also be done without the water)

 3.  Scoop out the pulp.  It can be frozen for use later.  I usually freeze 2 cups per container.

      Roasting the Seeds

     I’m still working on this.  I did rinse the seeds in water, rubbing them together to remove the pulp/strings.  This wasn’t hard to do. 

     In a 9″x13″ pan, I poured a little oil.   Add pumpkin seeds and salt, then stir them in the oil to lightly coat.  Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees until roasted, turning frequently. 

 The really delicious part is still inside the seed hull.  You can enjoy the whole seed and hull.or crack the hull and remove the seed. 

     I’m going to experiment with trying to remove the seed from the hull before roasting.  If I find a relatively painless way to do this, I’ll pass it on along.

     Pumpkin  and pumpkin seeds are considered super foods for their high nutritional value.  Here is a link that gives the nutitional analysis:

http://nutrican.fshn.uiuc.edu/tables/Pumpkin.html

Blessings,

Marcie

     Do you ever feel a little lonely?  Our friends, the Bailey’s, invited 320 of their closest friends to a Barn Party.  With hambergers and hot dogs provided, side dishes and desserts brought to share, it was quite a hoe-down as my in-laws would say!

Here are some highlights:

The West Ladies singing with our friends, the Travers Bluegrass players joined by that very talented banjo picker, Stephen Boyd.  (I took the liberty to name them the Travers bluegrass players:-)

This is a little taste of the West Ladies’ singing:

And the evening was just beginning!

Katie and her friends, Tiffany and Emily.  O.K., we really want to be adopted by their family.  There are 15 of them.  Do you think they would notice if a few more move in?

(sorry she is sideways, my hardrive died last week along with photo editing software )

Hay to play in for the younger crowd

And last but not least, Square Dancing!

Zach even gets dragged in toward the end.  He had  fun, but hey , it wasn’t football with the guys outside.

And last but not least, another great video by my talented friend, Kathy:

Thanks,  Bailey’s , for another awesome Barn Party!

Blessings,

Marcie

olive oil

     My son was born with reflux, the kind you don’t get over by yourself.   I stayed very busy just trying to keep him healthy and growing.   I didn’t have time to research it much or to make healthy food.  I will share with you a fewof things I did learn about dealing with reflux .

     Stay away from fried foods and pasturized and homogenized milk.  This is good advice for all of us, but for someone who has gastric reflux, it is a must. 

     Stay away from soft drinks.  Period, the end.  Tea and coffee are best avoided as well or at least in drank in  moderation.

     Those are the conventional things to avoid.  The other thing I tell people is STAY  AWAY FROM ANYTHING HYDROGENATED!   This is THE biggie.  It is also the hardest to do.  So many products have hydrogenated oil in them.  These oils are just not digestible.  The average person’s digestion will be slightly bothered by them, but for the person with reflux, it is awful.

     There are many good alternatives to hydrogenated oils.  I know margarine is much less expensive than butter, but if you don’t need the meds or doctor to treat reflux any more,  butter turns into a bargin.  There are great substitutes for shortening as well.  Palm oil shortening works very well, is good for you and is digestable!  Trade in that old corn oil for virgin olive oil.  You will be glad you did.

     Several years ago, I was listening to a cancer doctor talking about preventing breast cancer.  In his opinion, most breast cancer could be prevented by elimating hydrogenated oil from the diet!   Doesn’t that make changing oils more appealing?

     Lastly, for reflux, we added a digestive enzymes suppliment to his diet.  This was made from papaya and pineapple.  After 2 years of  strong medicine,  major surgery and diet change, it was the diet changes and digestive enzyemes that  got him comfortable enough to sleep through the night and begin healing.  Fifteen years later, we thank the Lord that he is enjoying good health.  He  is my night owl, though

     “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” (3 John 2)

Blessings,

Marcie

One happy young man!

Glorious Food!

      God gave us wonderful food to eat that not only satisfies our taste  but fills  us.  The sad thing is, so many foods today have been processed or altered through genetic modification.   They no longer do for us what God gave us  food to do – feed and nourish our bodies.

      Processed  foods have been stripped of their nutrients in order to have a long shelf life.  White flour, for instance, is a relatively new product.  Only in the 1900’s was this product available to the general public.  Before the technology was available to mass produce it, white flour was only available to the wealthy. 

     White flour has the vitamins and natural oils removed in order to keep it from going rancid on the shelf at room temperature over a long period of time.  When this began, they found that people developed serious health problems.  and linked it back to the removal  of vitamins from the white flour.  Flour was then “enriched” with only a handful of  the 30+removed nutrients, just enough to prevent bari-bari.  You can read about this at http://www.fullcupbread.com/history.asp  

      When that wonderful young man in the top picture  was little, he had lots of health problems.  A journey into a healthier lifestyle began.  What he Bible Says about Healthy Living changed our lives in more ways than one.  Besides introducing us to God’s science about health, it led us to have more of a biblical worldview.  This means seeing the world through what God has to say about it.  His Word really does cover every area of life.   Isn’t that great? 

     Tired of being sick and tired?  I encourage you to make the best food choices you can for your family.  The above cookbooks  will help you begin.  Much can be gleaned from them.  Full of information about products, recipes and MENU ideas, these gems will make the transition so much easier and the recipes are delicious, too!

Green Meadow's Whole Wheat Desserts

      Already began but still having trouble transitioning your desserts?  I humbly recommend my dessert  cookbook.  I think your family will be pleased.

 

Blessings,

Marcie

     “Why spend money on what is not bread and labor over that which does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Isaiah 55:2

    

 

 

 

  

 

From the garden

     Riddle:  If foods needed to be genetically modified, why didn’t God modify them to begin with?

     Answer:  Because His foods don’t need to be genetically modified;  they were created very good!

     When your car has a problem, to you take it to the dentist?  Do you call the plumber?  What silly questions!  You would try to find the answer from the company that manufactured the car.  It knows your car because it designed it.

     Our Creator knows our bodies, and He designed food that perfectly nourishes our bodies.  Science tells us the protein chain in food matches our protein chain.  How amazing and awesome is our God!  Sadly though, genetically modifying  food changes that protein chain.

     My daughter, Katie, is studying about genetics.  She ran across some interesting information.  As far back as 1995 and before, experiments to genetically modify food to  vaccinate people have been going on.  Think about this.  In our country, laws have been passed to keep food companies from having to label genetically modified foods.   We may eventually be given vaccines through our food and be totally unaware this is happening.  This same Katie had a serious reaction to a vaccine as a baby.  Thankfully afterward, she no longer received that vaccine.  If it had been  in our food, there would have been no way for me to know what caused her seizure.

     What to do?  Become educated as to foods that are genetically modified.  Here is a link to a brochure of genetically modified foods:

http://www.seedsofdeception.com/documentFiles/144.pdf

     Buy organic.  I know this can be more expensive, but through simple changes like having more meatless meals, it can be  done without killing the budget.  (You WILL end up saving much more in doctor bills, too). 

     Raise your own food using non-genetically modified seeds.  This can be done without a lot tools or even much topsoil.  Lasagna Gardening is a book that tells you how it can be done.   If you cut grass or rake leaves, you can build soil.  Again, isn’t God awesome?  He thinks of everything!  Here are two links to non- gm’d seeds:  (I won’t get into their politics

http://rareseeds.com

http://www.seedsofchange.com

     I’ll have a couple more posts on health coming up.  While good  whole  foods are important to maintaining our health,  Jesus is our  ultimate healer :

Isa 53:5
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (KJV)

Blessings,

Marcie

     My friend, Ann, is a wonderful hostess.  So are her daughters.  One of her daughter’s  is allergic to chocolate.  Isn’t that horrible?  Well, this carob cake is an excellent compensation.  When we were served this at her house, we couldn’t believe it was carob instead of chocolate and whole wheat to boot!

     Go ahead and give it a whirl.  You’ll be glad you did.

 Ann’s Awesome Carob Cake

Ann’s Awesome Carob Buttercream Frosting

Perfect Chocolate Cake and Ice Cream

     If you really like chocolate, this cake is perfect.   Oh, the white layer?  Whipped cream!  This cake was made with whole wheat pastry flour, but keep it quiet.  No one would ever know! 

     This recipe and other whole wheat dessert recipes are available in my cookbook.   It is available in e-book and spiral bound form.   Just clink on the bookstore link to learn more!

    Now, if I was a really good mom, I would have made a Piano Cake like this:

                     My friend, Kathy, has a tutorial for putting this cake together at                http://teachinggoodthings.com/blog/piano-cake/.

If you try it, I would love to see pictures.

(By the way, Kathy is also the author of the Learn  Cake Decorating DVD)

 Blessings,

                                                                                     Marcie